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"Saving the Sage-Grouse: Can Oil And Conservation Work Together?"

"PINEDALE, Wyo. — The anticline is a tableland of nearly 200,000 acres, the Tetons visible in the distance and, in June, still covered with snow. The plateau is filled with sagebrush that barely reaches the knee, short grass, dirt roads and the occasional oil drill. Beneath its rocky surface are 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, one of the richest concentrations in the entire United States.

More than 350 species of animals — from elk, mule deer and pronghorn to various types of songbirds — live in the sagebrush. It is an area where the greater sage-grouse, a bird similar in size to a duck or a small goose, lives.

Around since the last ice age, the greater sage-grouse is down to 50 percent of its previous numbers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has asked the 11 Western states that are home to the bird and its habitat to show how they intend to preserve its environment to avoid having it listed as an endangered species."